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So this is how the story goes. In 1826 a London merchant decides to buy some cloth from a weaver in Hawick, a town in the Scottish borders famous for its cloth production. Very happy with his order, he decides to get some more but – crucially – misreads the weaver’s dashed handwriting. Instead of ‘twill’ this Londoner reads ‘tweed’, and assumes this new cloth must take after the River Tweed which runs fast and clear through the textile areas of lower Scotland. ‘Tweed’ and not ’twill’ has been the term used ever since.

When the Uniform penny post rocked up in 1840, it completely revolutionised the way in which people communicated. Sending letters and cards, such as those celebrating Valentine’s Day, became easier and cheaper and as a result a thriving business developed in central London.

This summer, postcards have been a hot topic in my house. In June I installed Soldiers and Suffragettes; the exhibition exploring the life and work of photographer and postcard publisher Christina Broom, including over 100 vintage postcards.

Mrs Albert Broom took some of the best photographs of the brave women who campaigned for the vote in London in the years up to the outbreak of the First World War in 1914. One of the earliest of these images in the Museum of London’s collection is of the Suffragettes, members of the militant Women’s Social and Political Union, at their ‘monster’ meeting in Hyde Park on ‘Women’s Sunday’, 21 June 1908. Her last suffrage photograph captures the arrival of the Cumberland suffragists, members of the moderate National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies, ‘Women’s Pilgrimage’ to the capital on 26 July 1913.Read the full post

Card games have long been a traditional pastime of Londoners, and as our collection demonstrates, they often serve as a window into a particular period of history. In the spirit of today’s ‘reshuffle’, here are some of the card games and game inspired objects on display or in the archives at the Museum of London.Read the full post

Today is #MuseumCats Day. ‘What does that mean?’ I hear you ask. Well, it means that museums all over the world are taking to social media to share their own feline inspired collection objects – because who doesn’t love a picture of a cat? From satirical, anti-suffrage cats to ornamental cats, to mummified cats, here’s what we found when we delved into the Museum of London’s collection… Read the full post

As curator of the museum’s wonderful Suffragette collection I often welcome ‘important’ visitors to the archive, captivated by the story of the women who endured imprisonment, hunger-strike and even force-feeding in their battle to win the vote. Read the full post

Happy St Patrick’s Day! In honour of the Feast of St Patrick, patron saint of Ireland, we thought we’d share with you a few of our favourite Ireland and St Patrick related objects from the museum’s collection. Read the full post

Crowds gathered to witness the capture of the Monument by two suffragettes, Miss Spark and Mrs Shaw.

Whilst Londoners today are all-too-familiar with the intermittent disruption of street demonstrations and protests, 100 years ago the battle between the authorities and militant women demanding the right to vote almost threatened to overwhelm daily life in the capital. Read the full post